Monday, May 16, 2011

Roadtrip planning

In two weeks my mother and her husband will be landing at San Francisco airport! I'm really looking forward to their visit and we'll be spending most of their time here roadtripping! Yasu's busy summer semester will start right when my the Dutchies arrive, so we kind of have to plan around Yasu's new classes, as he can only miss each course once.

So we're actually doing two roadtrips, a long weekend trip and a whole week trip. I've been trying to plan a nice trip with new things to see, because us Dutchies already went on a major roadtrip through and around California in 2006, but Yasu hasn't so he's curious to see some of the same things we've already seen.

It's quite a challenge to come up with a trip that isn't an exact repeat of our last trip, has a nice variety of sightseeing and doesn't involve too much driving, and -oh yeah- we're on a budget... After four days of puzzling on Google Maps, comparing surrounding States and National Parks, and checking hotel prices I've finally come up with two routes.

First up is the long weekend. The plan is to drive up to Napa, take in a winery tour and tasting, and then drive on to Sacramento and spend the night there. The next day we'll drive up to Lassen Volcanic National Park and stay there until the next day when we slowly head back home.

Then Yasu has to attend classes for two days and after that we're on the road again. This time we drive up to Reno, spend the night there and spend the next day exploring Lake Tahoe, and hopefully do some canoeing. At the end of the day we head to a hotel in the middle of nowhere, on our way to Salt Lake City, two States over. I expect we'll arrive there in the afternoon and we'll spend 24 hours there and head for Bryce Canyon National Park in the evening.

The next day is reserved for admiring all the beauty Bryce Canyon has to offer and in the evening we'll drive to Vegas. We'll one day in Vegas, and two nights because hotels are cheap there, before a day of driving through Death Valley National Park into Sequoia National Park. On our last day we'll check out the giant Sequoia trees before driving back home.

Hi Louana, Bryce Canyon and the surrounding area is nice, but Zion is absolutely stunning. Zion is my favorite park here in Utah by far. You are smack dab in the midst of soaring heights and its so accessible to everyone, young and old. I have a few photos posted from my trip there in Feb. I am leaving for my own little road trip today (it's snowing btw) and heading west to Livermore, California!Regardless, your road trip sound like a good time. Be safe my friend!